Now, the first discoverable mention of the Temple as an abode of lawyers occurs in Chaucer’s ‘Prologue to the Canterbury Tales’ (_c._ 1387). Geoffrey Chaucer himself, a fond tradition would have us believe, dwelt for a while in these Courts, and was a student of the Inner Temple. Be that as it may, he tells us ‘A manciple there was of a Temple ... Of Masters had he mo than thrice ten, That were of Law expert and curious; Of which there was a dozen in that house Worthy to been Stewards of rent and land Of any Lord that is in England,’ etc. Here, then, we have a clear indication of a Society of Masters dwelling in the Temple, whilst Walsingham’s account of Wat Tyler’s rebellion refers to apprentices of the Law there. But there is nothing to indicate the existence of the two Inns till about the middle of the fifteenth century, when we find references to them in the Paston Letters (1440 _ff._), and in the Black Book of Lincoln’s Inn (1466 _ff._). This does not, of course, prove that there was only one Inn before. Such, however, is the traditional account. ‘In spite of the damage done by the rebels under Wat Tyler,’ says Dugdale, ‘the number of students so increased that at length they divided themselves in two bodies--the Society of the Inner and the Society of the Middle Temple.’ Those who believe this maintain that when, in course of natural development--rapid expansion apparently following the rebels’ onslaught--the original Society had attained an unwieldy bulk and outgrown the capacity of the Old Hall, a split was made. Two distinct and divided Societies, upon a footing of absolute equality, took the place of the parent body. A new Hall was built, but equal rights in the Old Church and the contiguous property were maintained. This form of propagation by subdivision is common enough, of course, in the vegetable and insect world, but it seems highly improbable in the case of a learned body. It is to me an incredible dichotomy. And it is not necessary to stretch one’s credulity so far. There are indications--faint, it is true, but still indications--of the existence of two Societies of Lawyers settled here on two parcels of land that once belonged to the Knights Templars, and dating from almost the earliest days after Edward’s confiscation.